THE GOD IDEA - NYOBS 48.02

THE GOD IDEA

Religion can be quite simple if you have no facts to bother you. - C.S. Lewis

First Word

·         For one to believe in the existence of a god, one must be confident that such a belief is capable of being verified by either reasoned argument or direct experience.

·         If we start out neutral with respect to god and try to reason our way to his existence without some kind of a spiritual interaction, then we just aren't going to come to a positive conclusion, thus a belief in God becomes a form of unreason.

·         Does the Universe, Earth, Wind, Fire, Water, the Eye, the Human Brain, DNA and Laws of Nature, all point to happenstance and Evolution or to Creative Design; The God Idea?   

A few Definitions

• Atheist – A meaning “No” and Theos meaning “God”; believes there is no god therefore miracles are not possible; there is no supernatural and we all live in a closed system.

·         An Airport Atheist is one who prays when there is turbulence on an airplane.

• Agnostic – A meaning “No” and gnosis meaning “Knowledge”; they are NOT SURE if there is a God, they have no knowledge one way or the other.

·         An Skeptic has some knowledge of a God, but doubts that He really exist.

·         An Infidel does not believe that God exists and wants everyone else to believe the same.

• Relativism – There are no absolute truths, only truths that are relevant to each individual. Therefore if Truth is relative; then no one is ever wrong.
• Side Note: There is a difference between; Belief in no God (there is no god) and No belief in God - (There is a god, but no belief)
• Pantheism believes God created the Universe and He IS the universe and everything is part of God. Pantheism believes that God is beyond “Good and Evil” – The wiser you are the less you call something good or evil. – The side that is called evil is dependent on which side you are on. - Cancer kills people; Doctors kill cancer – Both are killers. - God created them both.
• Dualism is the belief that there are two EQUAL and independent powerful forces in the world; one that is GOOD and one that is EVIL and the world is the stage on which their battle is fought endlessly. – Obviously we can REASON that ONE of the two powers is right and the other one is wrong. – What is the STANDARD for right and wrong and where did it come from; did it come from “something higher” than the two equal and opposite forces?

Ten Reasons to NOT Believe

1.     There is just no evidence that there is a god; it’s just bias, opinions and tradition.

2.     My parents did not believe in God therefore we never went to Church or Sunday School.

3.     God is an invention of the political wealthy elite to suppress the lower working class.

4.     The only reason people go to church, is to rub shoulders so they can make business contacts.

5.     Religion is just a hustle to separate you from your money.

6.     My college professor taught that NATURE accounts for everything in life.

7.     I can’t believe that a cosmic Deity created me just for the purpose of worshipping him.

8.     Religion is just something that keeps me in a box and makes me feel guilty about my lifestyle

9.     I have a good mind that directs my life; religion just restricts my full potential.

10.   If God really existed, we would not see so much pain, suffering and EVIL in this world.

Bill Gates (Microsoft)

·         I agree with people like Richard Dawkins, that mankind felt the need for CREATION MYTHS. Before we really began to understand disease and the weather and things like that, we sought FALSE EXPLANATIONS for them. - Now SCIENCE has filled in some of the realm; not all, that religion used to fill.

·         But the mystery and the beauty of the world is overwhelmingly amazing, and there's no scientific explanation of how it came about.

·         To say that it was generated by random numbers that does seem, you know, sort of an uncharitable view. - I think it makes sense to believe in God, but exactly what decision in your life you make differently because of it, I don't know. – Article Rolling Stone Magazine

Pope Francis

·         Pope Francis said in so many words that you do not have to believe in god as long as you obey your conscience.

·         “It is not necessary to believe in God to be a good person.  In a way, the traditional notions of God is outdated.  One can be spiritual, but not religious.  It is not necessary to go to church and give money.  For many, NATURE can be a church.  Some of the best people in history did not believe in God while some of the worst deeds were done in His name.”

·          “You ask me if the God of the Christians forgives those who don’t believe and who don’t seek the faith.  I start by saying – and this is the fundamental thing – that God’s mercy has no limits if you go to him with a sincere and contrite heart.

·         The issue for those who do not believe in God is to obey their conscience.-“Sin, even for those who have no faith, exists when people disobey their conscience.” 

Buddha – No God

·         There is no evidence to support the God Idea although numerous religions claim that god exists. – Some say he is a man, others a woman and still others gender neutral.

v  Buddha will not pass judgment on this until such evidence is found.

·         The earliest man lived in a dangerous and hostile environment and feared the wild animals and suffered for the lack of food – He feared the thunder, lightning, storms and created the “God Idea” in order to give him consolation and courage during his hard times.

·         "Gripped by FEAR men go to the sacred mountains, sacred groves, sacred trees and shrines"

v  Buddha taught that his followers should try to understand their fears, and accept the things they cannot change, replacing fear with rational understanding.

·         Some believe that there must be a god in order to explain the origin of the universe.

v  Buddha says that science has explained how the universe came about without the God Idea.

·         Mortals are weak and need the strength of a god in order to help themselves.

v  Buddha points to the many without god, who have overcome disabilities, handicaps and great difficulties through their own inner self and determination.

·         To live a happy and meaningful life, many feel like they need to worship a god.

v  Buddha shows that you can live a meaningful life without a belief in a god and millions of people already do so.

Ø  Buddha shows that each person has the capacity without a god to purify the mind, develop love and compassion and gain perfect understanding by shifting the attention from the heavens to the inner person; to find solutions through self-realization and understanding.

Ø  Dalai Lama – Concerning the Muslim ISIS terrorist shootings in Paris - November 13, 2015. “Humans have created this problem, and now we are asking God to solve it.  It is Illogical… Let us work for peace and NOT expect help from god, Buddha or the governments”.

Intelligent People

·         Intelligent people have memory, learning, logic, abstract thoughts, understanding, emotional knowledge, self-awareness, communications, planning and creativity. – They perceive information, retain it as knowledge and apply it to problem solving. – They lead THE HERD.

·         Albert Einstein – (theoretical physicist) “God does not play dice with the Universe”. - "The word God for me is nothing more than the expression and product of human weaknesses, the Bible a collection of honorable, but still primitive legends which are nevertheless pretty childish. No interpretation, no matter how subtle, can (for me) change this".

·         Angelina Jolie - (actress) “There doesn’t need to be a God for me.  There’s something in people that’s spiritual, that’s godlike.  I don’t feel like doing things just because people say things, but I also don’t really know if it’s better to just not believe in anything either.”

·         George Clooney – (actor) I don’t believe in heaven and hell.  I don’t know if I believe in God.  All I know is that as an individual, I won’t allow this life, the only thing I know to exist, to be wasted.

·         Bill Maher (TV Host) – Religion is just the ultimate hustle. – Why can’t God just defeat the Devil? – It’s the same reason a comic book character can’t defeat his nemesis – Then there’s no story – If God gets rid of the Devil, and he could because he’s all powerful, well there’s no fear; no reason to come to church.

·         Daniel Radcliffe (actor) (Harry Potter) – I’m not religious, I’m an atheist, and a militant atheist when religion starts impacting on legislation.

·         Lance Armstrong (Racing Cyclist) – I Hope I will be judged on whether I lived a true life, not whether I believed in a certain book, or whether I have been baptized.

·         Woody Allen – (director; playwright) -To you, I’m an atheist.  To God, I’m the loyal opposition.

·         Bruce Lee – (martial artist) - Religion goes against you being able to cultivate your own ways and beliefs.

·         Jack Nicholson – (actor) I don’t believe in God now, but I can still work up an envy for someone who has a faith.  I can see how that could be a deeply soothing experience.

·         Billy Joel – (singer; songwriter, pianist) - I still feel very much like an atheist in the religious aspects of things.  But there are spiritual planes that I’m aware of that I don’t know anything about and that I can’t explain.

·         Jodie Foster – (actress) I absolutely love religions and the rituals even thought I don’t believe in God; we celebrate pretty much every religion in our family with the kids.

·         Warren Buffett (Business magnate) – I’m too mathematical; too logical to make a leap of faith.

·         Katherine Hepburn – (actress) I’m an atheist, and that’s it.  I believe there’s nothing we can know except that we should be kind to each other and do what we can for each other.

·         Howard Stern – (TV personality) “I don’t think there’s any difference between the Pope wearing a large hat and parading around with a smoking purse and an African painting his face white and praying to a rock.”

·         Morgan Freeman - (actor) (Played God) - Has anybody ever seen hard evidence (of God)? – What we get is theories from our earlier prophets. - People who think that God invented us, think that the Earth can’t be more than 6,000 years old.  So I guess it’s a question of belief.

·         Kevin Bacon – (actor) I think there is a puritanical wind that is blowing. - I have never seen such a lack of separation between Church and state in America. – I don’t believe in God, but if I did, I would say that SEX is a God-given right, otherwise it’s the end of our species.

·         Steven Hawking - (smartest man living) World-famous theoretical physicist says; "Before we understand science, it is natural to believe that God created the universe. But now science offers a more convincing explanation. – Steven says flat-out that he doesn't believe in God, but he does believe that space travel offers the best hope for our species' immortality.

Hollywood Stars - Recruitment

• People do not join a religion on doctrinal grounds, rather they mainly join because they have found caring friends and a warm fellowship. - Some cults utilize “Stars” to help in recruitment like Shirley MacLaine for the New Age Movement or Donnie and Marie Osmond for the Mormons and Tom Cruise for the Christian Scientist.
• All cults do not have all the same characteristics.  Some stress moral activities, others lifestyle; still others, the method of Proselytizing; manifestation of Spiritual Gifts, Spirit Guides, Self-denial; Rejection of the upper classes values; Chanting, Channeling, Visions, the Scientific, Philosophical and Communal methods and Sex freedom religions; then there is bizarre cultic behavior such as Jim Jones. - We simply cannot lump all cults together.
• Cults are referred to as; Youth Nappers, Brain Washers and Mind Benders. 

• Oprah Winfrey’s church does not present the same Jesus as found in the New Testament. – They present Jesus as just a good man that is tolerant of alternative lifestyles.  –Their doctrine smacks of New Age consciousness; awakenings of your true purpose and your union with the Divine. – God is not a being or personality, but simply a force which mankind is a part of, therefore mankind is also divine. – NYOBS 14.14 – NEW AGE MOVEMENT
• New Age appeals to the ego of “EVOLVING” through meditation to the next level of consciousness and enlightenment. – What makes this so sad is that millions of people blindly follow Oprah. – To whom much is given much will be required.

Matt 15:14 – The blind are leading the blind

14 And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch.

KJV

Luke 12:47-48 - To whomsoever much is given much be required:
⁴⁷ And that servant, who knew his lord's will, and made not ready, nor did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes;
⁴⁸  but he that knew not, and did things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes. And to whomsoever much is given, of him shall much be REQUIRED: and to whom they commit much, of him will they ask the more. (ASV)

Born an Atheist

·         What if I told you that you were born an ATHEIST; an unbeliever in God?  Well you were. In fact we were all born DEAD to spiritual things.  We do not possess on our own, the ability to seek such things.

·         Things of God are spiritually discerned and to understand them, our dead spirit has to be made alive. (born again)

·         The Spiritual attributes of God have been clearly perceived in nature IF we choose to see them; so if no one had ever told us about God, we would still be without excuse. – We are destroyed because we choose to reject His knowledge that is right before our very eyes.

Hosea 4:6 - We are destroyed because we rejected knowledge
⁶ My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge; because you have rejected knowledge,

(ESV)

Romans 1:20 – We are without excuse
²⁰ For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. (ESV)

Romans 5:17 – Because of Adam’s sin – We are doomed to die
¹⁷ For if, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ. (ESV)

Ephesians 2:1-2 – You are DEAD in your sins
¹ As for you, you were DEAD in your transgressions and sins,
² in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. (NIV2011)

Colossians 2:13 – God made us who were dead; ALIVE
¹³  And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God MADE ALIVE together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses. (ESV)

Right and Wrong

• The Law of Human Nature thinks UNFAIR behavior is just plain wrong.  Why is that? 
• People universally and naturally understand courtesy and decent behavior. We know to NOT do wrong, but we do wrong anyway; then defend our actions with excuses. -  Why is that?
• Where does this Standard of Right and Wrong and decent behavior come from? - There must be some sort of an agreement of what right and wrong is that is beyond ordinary facts
• The Bible says the laws are written on our hearts; accusing us or excusing us.  Ponder that !

Rom 2:15 – Laws are written in our hearts – accusing or excusing

15 in that they show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness therewith, and their thoughts one with another accusing or else excusing (them) ASV

Rom 7:15 – I don’t understand why I do things

15 I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. NIV

Is this all there is?

• If man evolved from a lower type of life, what’s the next big step in evolution and why has there been no “evoluting” in the past 6,000 years?  Are we just Cosmic Orphans?
• Our bodies may be good for about eighty to a hundred years and then we return to room temperature.  What happens after that?  Does my Spirit or my Soul (my mind) remain with my dead body or does it move on to someplace else? NYOBS 06.14 - DEATH
• Could the decisions I make during my lifetime have some kind of Eternal Consequence?
• The Question that begs to be answered – IS THIS ALL THERE IS?  Did matter and space just always happen to exist and nobody knows why, or is there something behind it that caused it all? – Where did I come from? – Did something create me?
• Did Nothing and Nothing bump into each other and then BANG there was Something?
• Everything that happens is caused by something GREATER than itself.
• Something must have been the first Unmovable Cause, that itself had no cause. - Is there an UNMOVED MOVER that made me and everything else? – Did this “Creator” of everything just WIND IT ALL UP and walk away, or is He still intimately involved.
• Why do I have a desire to know about this UNMOVED MOVER? – Is this desire coming from my spirit or am I being drawn by His Spirit.  - NYOBS 20.19 - HOLY SPIRIT
• God has set eternity in our hearts and we hunger for its meaning. – WHY IS THAT?
• All we can do is Weigh the Evidence and choose the MOST LIKELY EXPLANATION.

The Unjust Steward

• There is a parable about a servant who was wasting his master’s goods. – The wasteful servant cheated his master by changing the books of those that were indebted to him.
• The master commended him for the decision he made; not because it was a good decision, but because he got off the fence and made a decision to acknowledge to himself which side of the fence he belonged on. – He will now “be received” into the everlasting worldly home.
• Oddly enough, the steward remained the same person before and after his decision; he was only a Make Believer. – Even demons acknowledge God; but they just do not accept Him.

Luke 16:1-9 – Make a decision – Get off the Fence
¹ There was a certain rich man who had a steward, and an accusation was brought to him that this man was wasting his goods.
² So he called him and said to him, 'What is this I hear about you? Give an account of your stewardship, for you can no longer be steward.'
³ Then the steward said within himself, 'What shall I do? For my master is taking the stewardship away from me. I cannot dig; I am ashamed to beg.
⁴  I have resolved what to do, that when I am put out of the stewardship, they may receive me into their houses.'
⁵  So he called every one of his master's debtors to him, and said to the first, 'How much do you owe my master?'
⁶ And he said, 'A hundred measures of oil.' So he said to him, 'Take your bill, and sit down quickly and write fifty.'
⁷ Then he said to another, 'And how much do you owe?' So he said, 'A hundred measures of wheat.' And he said to him, 'Take your bill, and write eighty.'
⁸ So THE MASTER COMMENDED THE UNJUST STEWARD because he had dealt shrewdly. For the sons of this world are more shrewd in their generation than the sons of light.
⁹ And I say to you, make friends for yourselves by unrighteous mammon, that when you fail, they may receive you into an everlasting home.

(NKJV)

James 2:19 - Even the demons believe, but do not accept
¹⁹ You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder! (ESV)

No Hope

• If you were born a Muslim then you have no idea of what’s in store for you in the afterlife.
• God’s love is conditional upon what you do. – In fact you may very well be someone who Allah created specifically to go to Hell. – The only thing that you know for sure is that if you kill someone in the name of Allah then you will go to heaven with 70 virgins and a river of wine.

·         The Heart of Islam is not to KNOW God, but to obey Him.  It’s not to MEDITATE on His essence, but to summit to His will. – Sadly, Islam is a religion of the WORKS of man, not the MERCY & GRACE of God. - NYOBS 39.20 -  ISLAM VS; CHRISTIANITY - NYOBS 22.02 – ARMAGEDDON

Qur’an Sura 19:96 – Allah has no affection – Love depends on Works

96 Allah has no affection for any creature.  Love is conditional on good works.

Sura 32:13 – Allah creates many to go to Hell

13 Allah sends to hell whomever he wants.  He created a multitude of spirits and men specifically for the purpose of sending them to hell.

Sura 52:17 – Paradise - Reward because of Works

17 Verily, the will be in gardens, and the delight, enjoying in that which their lord has bestowed on them… eat and drink with happiness because of what you used to do. They would recline on beds, arranged in ranks, and we shall marry them to fair women with wide, lovely eyes.

Sura 47:15 – Paradise - Rivers of Wine

15 There are rivers of water that taste and smell of which are not changed. Rivers of milk, of which the taste never changes. Rivers of wine, delicious to those who drink. And rivers of clarified honey.

Jehovah Witness

·         Jesus in NOT GOD and we do not worship Him.

·         We believe in Jesus, who said: “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

·         We have faith that Jesus came to earth from heaven and gave his perfect human life as a ransom sacrifice. His death and resurrection make it possible for those exercising faith in him to gain everlasting life.

·         We also believe that Jesus is now ruling as King of God’s heavenly Kingdom, which will soon bring peace to the entire earth. HOWEVER, we take Jesus at his word when he said: “The Father is greater than I am.”

·         So we do not worship Jesus, as we do not believe that he is Almighty God.

John 14:28 - The Father is greater than I am

28 You heard that I said to you, ‘I am going away and I am coming back to you.’ If you loved me, you would rejoice that I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I am.

The Pitiful State

·         If I saw signs of God everywhere then I would be a Believer.

·         If I saw too much to deny Him, but too little to assure me - then I am just a Make-Believer.

·         It seems to me that if God really sustains nature, then nature would reveal Him without ambiguity.

·         If I see no signs of a god; then I must fix myself in unbelief.

·         LISTEN UP - We must decide whether to live our life as though God does exists, or whether to live as though He does not exist, either way, in either case, we may still be mistaken.

The Age old Question

·         Where did you come from? – From my mother and father.

·         Where did they come from? – From my grandparents.

·         Where did the first man and woman come from? – Pond scum.

·         Where did that come from? – Gasses, Chemicals and Matter.

·         Where did that come from? – Space and planets exploding.

·         Where did they come from? – A single source that was expanding.

·         Where did that come from? – I don’t know. – Perhaps God. – The Unmoved Mover.

·         If there is an Unmoved Mover; is He knowable or is He hidden?

Let’s Reason Together

·         Discussions of God with someone who does not believe in God is illogical; there is no point of reference; there is no yard stick of measurement; thoughts and ideas are just foolishness.

·         Most people would claim to possess only an infinitely small fraction of all the knowledge in the universe, so the odds are extremely high of God existing outside of one’s knowledge. 

• God does not expect us to believe without REASON. - If you disbelieve in the face of strong evidence, then you are just closed minded.
• The most progressive man is the one that REASONS that he is on the wrong path and turns back the soonest. 

Isaiah 1:18 – Let’s reason together
¹⁸ Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD:

(KJV)

1 Corinthians 2:14 – God is spiritually discerned
¹⁴ But the natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are FOOLISHNESS unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. (KJV)

Pascal’s Wager - Eternity

·         Name of the Game – Does God Exist – a wager

·         The Prize – Obtain an infinitely happy life for eternity. 

·         The Stakes – YOUR LIFE.

·         The Odds – 50/50 chance of winning or losing. – Equal chance of gain or loss.

·         Participants -The game is a necessary pragmatic decision for every living person which is "Impossible to Avoid". – Everyone must wager; it’s not optional.

·         Rules – There is infinite bliss or infinite loss attached to the wager which we are compelled to make.

1.     You must choose which God you are entering into a wager with. – Jehovah, Allah, Buddha, Hindu, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Baltic, Celtic, Irish, Finnic, Germanic, Greek pantheon, Hungarian, Roman, Aztec, Maya, Polynesian, etc. - (What if you choose the wrong God?)

2.     You must believe with certainty that the God you choose will honor His side of the Bet.

3.     Do you truly Believe or are you a Make-Believer? – Will God take your bet?

4.     If the Wager is valid; the inability to believe is not rational, and therefore must be caused by feelings: - This inability, therefore, can be overcome by learning from those who were bound just like you. -  Follow the way by which they began; by acting as they believed, attending Church Services, Repentance before God, following in Baptized, etc. - This will naturally bring your spirit alive, enlarge your FAITH and cause you to believe.

·         The Wager - A decision of whether or not to believe in the existence of God must be made by "CONSIDERING THE CONSEQUENCES OF EACH POSSIBILITY".–

1.     If you bet that God exists, then; if you win, you gain all; if you lose, you lose nothing, meaning one can gain eternal life if God exists, but if not, one will be no worse off in death than if one had not believed.

2.     If you bet against God’s existence, win or lose, you either gain nothing or lose everything. You are either unavoidably annihilated or just lose the opportunity of eternal happiness.

·         Summation - Betting that God DOES exist; if you win, you win it all. - If you lose, you lose nothing. But, God will not take the bet of a Make-Believer.

Mark 9:24 - Lord I believe; Help me in my Unbelief
²⁴ Immediately the father of the child cried out and said, “I believe; help my unbelief!” (ESV)

There is Hope

·          Christianity believes the world was created good and then it went wrong. – Did God create Evil as well as Good? – God created man with FREE WILL; a mind that can think, reason and plan.  – If a man is truly free to do good, he is also truly free to do evil.

·          So in effect because God gave man Free Will, he created the possibility of Evil. - It is God’s will that man does GOOD, but man is FREE to choose. – Life is choice driven and the choices we make in this life have eternal consequences. - NYOBS 29.02 - CASE FOR CHRISTIANITY

• We were all born in sin and death will come to us all. - We were born with thoughts and inclinations of evil all the time. -  We cannot on our own make something pure that is impure. We are born blind and deaf to spiritual matters therefore the word of God is foolishness to us. – We must be gently instructed in the Word, and Christ will enable us to come to Him.  It’s a gift from God; we cannot do anything to earn it; BUT we must choose it.

Ps 51:5 – We were born in sin

5 Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me. NIV

Rom 5:12 – Death has come to ALL men

12 Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned- NIV

Gen 6:5 – Our thoughts and inclination are of evil all the time.

5 The LORD saw how great man's wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. NIV

Job 14:4 – Man cannot make something pure that’s impure

4 Who can bring what is pure from the impure?  No one!  NIV

Mark 4:11-12 – The natural man is blind and deaf.

11 But to those on the outside everything is said in parables

12 so that, they may be ever seeing but never perceiving, and ever hearing but never understanding. NIV

1 Cor 2:14 – The Word is foolishness to the natural man.

14 The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.

NIV

2 Tim 2:25 – We must be gently instructed in the Word

25 Those who oppose him he must gently instruct, in the hope that God will grant them repentance leading them to a knowledge of the truth. NIV

Eph 2:1 – Christ made us alive when we were dead in our sins

1 And you (did he make alive,) when ye were DEAD through your trespasses and sins, ASV

John 6:65 – God enables us to come to Him

65 He went on to say, "This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless the Father has ENABLED him." NIV

Eph 2:8-9 – Salvation is a Gift – Can’t do anything to earn it.

8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith-and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God-

9 not by works, so that no one can boast NIV

It’s not complicated

• Satan would have us in bondage to certain customs or rituals that are so complicated that we would believe that we are just not worthy or that the sacrifices are just too great.  
• Actually Jesus made it very simple, as all we have to do is BELIEVE and ACCEPT that God sent His only begotten Son, Jesus, to be our Savior, and we will receive eternal life.

John 3:15-16 – The plan is simple. Who So Ever

15 That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.

16 For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life KJV

John 4:14 – There it is again – Who So Ever

14 But whosoever drinks of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.

KJV

John 5:24 – If you will hear and BELIEVE

24 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that hears my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life. KJV

John 6:27 – Seek the Word of God which endures

27 Labor not for the meat which perishes, but for that meat which endures unto everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto you: for him hath God the Father sealed. KJV

John 6:47 – Just Believe

47 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life. KJV

John 6:54 – Read and Do his Word

54 Whoso eats my flesh, and drinks my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day. KJV

John 6:40 – Here’s the promise – EVERLASTING LIFE

40 And this is the will of him that sent me, that everyone which sees the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day. KJV

Closing Thoughts

• President Theodore Roosevelt said;

“A thorough knowledge of the Bible is worth more than a college education”.

• Mark Twain said that what bothered him the most about the Bible was not the parts he didn’t understand, but the parts he did understand.
• You can only understand drunkenness when you are sober. – You can only understand Sleep, when you are awake. - A creature with no eyes does not understand the meaning of Dark, they must first be able to “See the Light” in order to understand the dark.
• If Conversion to Christianity makes no improvement in a person’s outward actions; then their conversion is mostly imaginary. – They are just Make-Believers.
• This is sad to say; but to remain indifferent to God is making a choice to reject Him.

Psalm 14:1 - The FOOL has said in his heart, "There is no God."
¹ The fool has said in his heart, "There is no God." They are corrupt, they have committed abominable deeds. (NASB)

I would love to talk to you about Jesus Christ,

but I cannot until you believe that there is a God.

The next step is belief in the ONE God of

Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

YAHWEH – JEHOVAH

How can they call on Him to save them unless they believe in Him?

And how can they believe in Him if they have never heard about Him?

And how can they hear about Him unless someone tells them?

Romans 10:14 (NLT)

I’m just not very religious…

Christianity, if false, is of no importance,

and if true, of infinite importance.

The only thing it cannot be is moderately important.

C.S. Lewis

In the multitude of counselors,

there is wisdom.

Proverbs 11:14

I am grateful to those that went before me providing concepts, ideas, historical information, and scripture verses.  Because of them I can stand on their shoulders and see further that I otherwise ever could have.

                                                                                                                                     

Disappointed with God – Philip Yancey

English Standard Version Bible - ESV

Mere Christianity – C.S. Lewis

New International Version Bible - NIV

Pascal’s Wager – Michael A. Gorman

Wikipedia